


Zip-lines and Ladders

by Herskirtsarentthatshort



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fear of Heights, Fluff, OHFAT, Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon, and maybe a little angst as Felicity works through the fear of heights thing, like a REALLY BIG FEAR of heights, zip-lining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 16:22:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11108301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herskirtsarentthatshort/pseuds/Herskirtsarentthatshort
Summary: All Felicity wants to do is zip-line, but that pesky fear of heights gets in the way.





	Zip-lines and Ladders

**Author's Note:**

> So I am trying my hand at this fic-a-thon organised by @thebookjumper. Not sure how many of them I’ll do, but I had this fun idea and wanted to roll with it…
> 
> Week 2 prompt :eye contact

“Felicity. _Felicity._ Look at me.”

She looks at him, and for a second the absolute abject fear consuming her body stills. She looks at the blue whirlpools instead, seeing the reassurance they’re offering. But only for a second. Only until the terror slams back into her body, rendering it basically frozen halfway up the ladder.

She knows she’s causing a scene and there’s people waiting behind her. But she just can’t move her foot up another step.

Oliver rescinds his hand and makes a move to come meet her. Through her tears and white-knuckled grip, she objects. “No, no. Oliver. _No._ ”

“Felicity, honey, we don’t have to do this, okay?”

Felicity shakes her head and the dead air around her swirls; she tightens her grip even more. “Yes. Yes, we do. I told you, I really wanted to do this. It’s on my bucket list. I want to go flying through the tree tops.”

“Just let me come down and we’ll get you to the bottom,” he says gently. “We can let the others go and we’ll just take our time.”

Felicity’s fingers have gone numb and the slight breeze feels like a gale, but as she watches Oliver descend the ladder from several feet above, her thundering heart rate begins to beat at a less threatening pace.

When he reaches her, he jumps the remaining few feet to the ground and Felicity can’t help but yelp.

“Ok, Felicity, honey, time to come down.”

She feels his hand on her foot.

“I’ve got you.”

She releases a shaky breath and manages to unstick a trembling leg from a rung. It lands on the one directly below it.

“Move your arms down, honey.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. I won’t let you fall, Felicity.”

She hears some token encouragement from the ground but she doesn’t acknowledge it. They just want to get on with it. _They_ have no fear of heights.

Her hands are sweaty and feel slippery against the old wood, but she trusts Oliver – _of course she does –_ and she begins the agonisingly slow descent down the ladder. She exhales loudly and her legs sag when she feels Oliver’s hands on her hips.

“Let go, honey, I’ve got you.”

She does as he says and finds herself in his arms. Her arms tremble as she wraps them around his neck. “Hi,” she smiles at him.

“Hi, yourself,” he grins, his eyes bright. “I’m very proud of you.”

Felicity huffs. “Oliver. I didn’t get past half way.”

“Well that’s an improvement on when we first got here,” he teases.

She finds herself getting lost in the twinkle of his eyes and the warm strength in his hold around her (even if the harnesses make it a little awkward). It takes her back to the first time she met Oliver. He had walked into her office and she knew who he was (anyone who was human knew who he was), knew what he looked like, but it still didn’t diminish the _whoa_ when his eyes landed on hers. They were blue and bright and a hint of mischief lurked beneath. The mischief soon made itself known when he presented a laptop riddled with bullet holes.

The next time she saw him he was lying in the back of her car, bleeding, after his mother had shot him. There was pain in his eyes then, as he begged her not to take him to the hospital.

And the time after that? Well, she had a bomb collar around her neck and she was trying not to freak _the frak out._ It really didn’t help that Oliver was looking all concerned and worried at her, hesitant to leave her, even though she was with Diggle and he was working out how to disarm the damn thing. 

Fast forward six years and here they are on their honeymoon, and she’s having a meltdown on a ladder. After all the swinging over elevators, climbing up elevators on _Oliver’s back_ and jumping out of plane, she thought she had conquered her fear of heights. Apparently not. Apparently that whole life-and-death thing played a big part.

Oliver lowers his forehead to hers, bringing Felicity back to him. “Everything ok in here?”

Felicity nods and a dry laugh slips through. “Uh-huh. Just thinking about all our adventures together, how we managed to get through them all…but I can’t seem to climb this ladder.”

“Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. Don’t worry about anyone else, they can wait for us. We will do this at your pace, okay?”

He’s looking right at her, and in the blues of his eyes Felicity sees the green of the trees around them.

“How about we try you climbing up first and I will be right behind you? I won’t let you fall, Felicity.”

She sees the determination, the tenderness, the love and the promise staring back at her. She exhales a little unsteadily, but she nods hoping with the same conviction as was in his voice.

He smiles then, fully and all dimply and his eyes are doing the twinkly thing again. Cue for the butterflies in her stomach. She kisses him hard on the mouth, enjoying the feeling of his bushy beard. Oliver responds in kind and moves his lips against her.

He pulls away far too quickly for her liking and she lets him know with a small pout.

He chuckles but gives her a quick squeeze before letting her legs drop to the ground. “Ready to fly through the trees, Mrs Queen?”

She takes his right hand and basically squeezes the life out of it as she looks up to the ladder. “Sure thing, Mr Queen.”    


End file.
